Former U.S. counterterrorism coordinator to speak at Virginia Tech campus

March 22, 2011

Henry "Hank" Crumpton

Henry “Hank” Crumpton, former coordinator for counterterrorism at the U.S. State Department from August 2005 until February 2007, will visit the Virginia Tech campus April 7 to discuss the topic “A New Era of Conflict.”

Taking place from 7 to 8:30 p.m. April 7 at Torgersen Hall 2150, the talk is sponsored by the Intelligence Community-Center for Academic Excellence, a joint program operated by Virginia Tech and Howard University. The center is designed to help prepare students seeking a career with one of the U.S. intelligence community agencies. Crumpton’s presentation is expected to touch on his work with the CIA and the State Department, post-Sept. 11, 2001.

Crumpton is now president of the Crumpton Group LLC, an Arlington, Va.-based firm providing logistics advice for companies investing in international markets. According to its website, the Crumpton Group “brings a holistic approach to managing global risk and opportunity.” He founded the company in 2007.

Previously, he held the rank of ambassador-at-large as the U.S. State Department’s coordinator for counterterrorism from August 2005 until February 2007. Working directly under then-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Crumpton was tasked with developing, coordinating, and implementing U.S. counterterrorism policy.

Crumpton joined the CIA in 1981 as a clandestine service operations officer. For most of his 24-year career, he operated in the foreign field, including assignments as chief of station. From 1998-1999, he worked as deputy chief of the FBI’s International Terrorism Operations Section. From 1999-2001, he served as division deputy chief at the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center operations. He led the CIA’s Afghanistan campaign from 2001 to 2002, before moving up to chief of the CIA’s National Resources Division from 2003 to 2005.

Crumpton earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of New Mexico and a master’s in international public policy from Johns Hopkins in 2003.

Now writing a book – due out in late 2011 -- about his own career, Crumpton has been featured in several recent books such as “Bush at War” by Bob Woodward, “American Soldier” by Gen. Tommy Franks, and “At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA” by George Tenet, who ran the agency from 1997 to 2004. He also has appeared on television’s “60 Minutes and “The Charlie Rose Show.”

Currently, Crumpton is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, an honorary member of the Office of Strategic Services Society, an advisory board member of the private equity fund D.C. Capital Partners, and director of the public company Argan Inc. His honors include the Intelligence Commendation Medal; the George H.W. Bush Award for excellence in counterterrorism; and the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the CIA’s highest award for achievement.

Crumpton’s invitation to speak on campus came from his former employee, Kenneth Stiles, a CIA Officer-in-Residence teaching in Virginia Tech’s Geography Department. Joining the Virginia Tech faculty in November 2010, Stiles worked for Crumpton when the latter orchestrated CIA operations in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2002, starting shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.